It is often necessary to interconnect together two or more lines at locations intermediate the ends of lines. One example of such a need is to interconnect a fishing net to its support lines. For instance, gill net assemblies, known in the trade as "shackles," are composed of a length of netting or webbing having its upper edge portion attached to a float line having a cork or other type of flotation device attached thereto for supporting the upper edge of a gill net. Typically, the upper margin of the gill net is attached to the float line with a series of twines which extend downwardly from the float line to interconnect with the upper margin of the net. The gill net shackle also includes a weight line having a plurality of weights, such as lead, attached thereto, with the weight line tied to the lower margin of the net with twines comparable to those used to fasten the upper margin of the net to the float line. Examples of this type of gill net construction are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,120.
In the present application the term "support line" will be used to refer to either the float line, the weight line or similar lines used to support and/or control fishing nets. As will be appreciated, the float line and weight line cooperatively support the net as a vertical curtain in the water.
As is well known in the art, the netting portion of fishing nets, such as gill nets, are quickly worn out or damaged, often after only one or two days' use. Because of the high cost of the float and weight lines, when the netting is worn out, the entire shackle cannot simply be discarded, rather the old netting is removed from the float and weight lines and replaced. As will be appreciated, this is an extremely laborious and time-consuming, manual procedure. Because the fishing season for many types of fish is now limited by government regulations to a relatively short duration, often for only a few days, heretofore, it has not been economically feasible for fishermen to replace the worn out or damaged netting of shackles. As a result, fishermen must purchase a sufficient number of shackles for the entire fishing season. However, in most fishing areas, by regulations, the number of shackles which may be carried onboard a fishing vessel at any particular time is limited. As a result, fishermen typically must store extra shackles on shore. Then, when the nets onboard have worn out or become damaged, the boat must return to shore to off load the old shackles and take on the new ones. As will be appreciated, valuable fishing time is lost during the trip(s) to and back from shore.
There is now, however, a limitation on the quantity of netting which can be kept onboard as long as it is not attached to the float and weight lines. Thus, it is theoretically possible to keep spare netting onboard and then replace the netting of assembled shackles as needed. However, as noted above, because of the slow, manual operation of attaching the netting to the float and weight lines, heretofore, this has not been a viable alternative to fisherman.
Accordingly, the present invention addresses the problem of quickly attaching together two or more lines at locations intermediate the ends of the lines, and particularly concerns a novel connector to quickly and simply attaching fishing nets to support lines and subsequently detach the nets from the lines.